A scolding

"Fighting the Collector!? What were you thinking!?" Citrinas exclaimed, shaking Verdi to and fro as they sat in Belsach's private room, his stone statue still leering at them in the background and ignoring the verbal lashing Citrinas was giving. Despite her vigorous shaking, Verdi was busy fiddling with a silver coin while the rest of the party was toying with their own little knick knacks to pass the time. Fenri was busy leaning back in her chair and sharpening a knife with a whetstone while Belsach was sitting atop his throne, sipping cheap liquor and happily polishing his new camera's lens. As for Daria, she was happily scooted next to Varrick, her crimson eyes practically glowing while Varrick tried to remain professional amidst the band of miscreants.

"It was a friendly match, not a fight." Verdi corrected flatly as Daria made a choked noise.

"You ripped out half your organs with your bare hands, lost both eyes, ended up being melted to soup, and had your right lung turned into some meat beast that escaped into the city to terrorize the local merchants! What part of that was friendly!?" She asked, horrified at Verdi's casual dismissal of his previous fight.

"Fenri did WAY worse to me, and now I'm a part of her party." Verdi pointed out as Daria frowned and looked at Fenri, hoping she'd deny the statement. Instead, she continued sharpening her knife without a care in the world, the sound of scraping metal filling the room.

"He's got you there, leech." She said dismissively, unwilling to contest his logic as Varrick sighed.

"Don't treat Fenri as a baseline for other people, she's an unhinged psychopath with no social acumen or empathy." Varrick said said wearily as the hero clicked her tongue and made a rude gesture.

"Love you too, jackass." She snapped back before sharpening her knife once more. Rather than let the topic die, Citrinas returned to shaking Verdi.

"No more fighting Great Terrors like Evangeline!" Citrinas ordered, the words Great Terror causing Fenri to stop sharpening her knife.

"Great Terror? What are those?" She asked, her eyes sparkling like a kid in a candy store as Varrick gasped in horror, as though some forbidden knowledge had been invoked in his presence.

"Do NOT tell-"

"Great Terrors are beings that are considered beyond logic or reason. Eren, Mathias, the previous demon king, the Collector are considered the least malicious of them!" Citrinas said, not noticing Varrick's terror as Fenri panted like a dog in heat.

"So there's more freaks like her out there!?" Fenri asked excitedly, barely able to contain herself at the prospect of greater foes to defeat.

"Back to the point! No more fighting enemies that can cut your limbs off!" Varrick said, giving Verdi a rather strict line on what he could and couldn't fight.

"Come on. How else am I gonna get a statue of me made?" Verdi asked, still intent to on getting his mark in history. Rather than scold Verdi any further, Citrinas sighed while rubbing her temples to relieve her headache.

"Fine, I will buy you a statue later." She said in a defeated voice, only for Verdi to vigorously shake his head.

"No, I don't want you to buy me a statue." He said as Citrinas groaned.

"You just said you wanted a statue!" She said as Verdi nodded.

"I want someone to make me a statue for doing something great, not make me one out of pity. If you just bought me a statue, I'd probably destroy it and make a nude statue of you on top of it." He said, his threat very real as Citrinas shook him once more.

"Don't you dare!" She commanded as Verdi rubbed his chin, ignoring the frenzied arch-imago completely.

"Besides, we still gotta get the prizes to bait your sister out. Unless we have a different plan, I'm sticking to plan A to bait her out." He said, silencing Citrinas as she tried to think of a rebuttal to his statement. He had a point. As she tried to think of an alternative plan to their current journey, Daria spoke up.

"That reminds me. I get why everyone else is here, but why are you a member of this party?" She asked abruptly as Varrick looked to Verdi. The pair looked at each other in silence, almost conversing mentally before they both sighed, realizing that they needed Daria and Belsach's help.

"Because I'm a former hero turned hybrid, and whoever made me a monster might be the puppet master controlling your friend Eren." Verdi answered flatly. A moment of silence passed as Belsach and Daria tried to process his words. Belsach was the first to respond, setting the camera he was polishing aside as he

"Uh... Champ, any reason you didn't tell us this before?"

"To be fair, I don't know either of you. Only reason I'm talking is because Varrick here is vouching for you two." Verdi explained as the goblin nodded in understanding.

"Well, good that you trust Varrick." He said, conceding to Verdi's logic as Daria spoke up.

"So you know everything!? What the hell is Eren doing!? Why is he stealing artifacts!? And what the fuck happened during the fight against the Demon King!? Also, why the fuck did he open the Apollyon Gates twice that day!?" She asked, firing a stream of questions as Verdi shook his head, unable to answer any of the questions.

"Don't waste your time. Being hybridized messed with my memories. I can't remember anything important. Verdi's not even my real name." He said, killing whatever expectations they had.

"Hold on. Champ, you're saying you're a former hero?" Belsach asked as Verdi nodded.

"That's what Harvin said. Anything less than a hero soul would go insane from the pain or just outright drop dead." Verdi said, tossing out Harvin's explanation of what happened when someone was hybridized without being a hero. Considering he was only slightly unhinged, he liked his odds of being a former albeit weak hero.

"I've met almost every hero for the past 400 years, and you don't ring any bells." Belsach said as Verdi flinched, the pain from Belsach's words far worse than Evangeline's stomach acid. He wanted to make some clever rebuttal or a joke, but he was too busy being glum at Belsach's statement.

"So what do you remember if your memories are hazy?" Daria asked as Verdi shrugged.

"Technology, scientific facts, basic facts about Olskroya, Belsach's bar's location, how to get into the black market, some minor facts about Tomoko's party, and I recognize Eren's face." Verdi answered, tossing out what little he knew. It was vague, he couldn't grasp a lot of things, and he didn't distinctly remember faces, images, or anything of the sort. It was as though he'd read a book or had been told about these things by someone else.

"You know my bar?" Belsach asked as Verdi shrugged.

"Kinda. I don't remember you, but I remember someone telling me about it once. Eren probably told me about it while I was half awake or something. I'm not sure myself why I know about it." Verdi said as Daria pointed to Varrick.

"So what's your best theory on who he is?" She asked, hoping to get some insight into his past.

"We're assuming he's just an ancient hero from long ago that was hybridized and spoke to Eren for a bit before losing his memories." Varrick answered, their theory far from conclusive. Why would Verdi speak to Eren, and how did he lose his memories? There were too many inconsistencies with his story.

"His corpse would have rotted after a few centuries. He couldn't have been dead for that long." Citrinas chimed in as Verdi shook his head.

"I woke up naked on a frozen mountain, so my corpse might have been frozen." He countered as everyone groaned, realizing his past identity was too broad.

"Hold on, how exactly did you guys meet anyway? Did Champ seek you guys out, or did you find him?" Belsach asked Verdi went pale, realizing just what was wrong before anyone else. Citrinas, on the other hand, just answered the question without hesitation, not noticing just what was wrong.

"Oh, I was on a job with Tomoko, and I found him on a mountain." She answered as Fenri squinted and looked at her.

"... You just found him. On a mountain. You just so happened to be visiting." She asked cautiously while throwing wayward glances to Verdi, hoping he'd interject. When she saw his shocked expression, she realized Citrinas was speaking the truth.

"Yes." Citrinas answered as Belsach looked to Verdi.

"Champ?" He asked as Verdi swallowed.

"I woke up on a mountain. Some elves made their way to my mountain because Leraje blew up a mountain, collapsing the rubble to seal them in. Citrinas showed up shortly afterwards." He said, giving a rough idea of what happened.

"Verdi, please tell me you're both messing with us. You tried following Citrinas, right?" Varrick asked as Citrinas sighed, visibly annoyed by everyone's qeustions.

"No, I literally just found him on a mountain during a job helping elves. Why is that so hard to believe?" Silence fell over the room once more as Citrinas looked to everyone. Though she was undoubtedly a brilliant mage, she didn't realize the implications of their meeting. It was that moment that Verdi chimed in, tossing in another fun fact about himself.

"... Hey, I forgot to mention, but being hybridized also drove me insane. Before I woke up, I thought I met Carnachias and Melanoche." He added as Daria frowned.

"Why is that relevant?" She asked, puzzled at his abrupt tidbit of info.

"They told me to capture and defile Tomoko's party. Or kill for one of them." He said, tossing in the commands the duo of goddesses, or ancients, had given him before he woke up. Defile the heroes, lead the forces of darkness, don't turn to the light.

"Carnachias told you to hunt down Bonds?" Belsach asked as Verdi nodded, his grim face now shared with everyone in the room.

"Also, the voice of some angel named Ariel that looked just like me told me to do the same to Rael, her court mage, Orchid the kitsune, the Hornet Empress, Halicarnassus, and the Ancient Dungeon Core." He added as Daria shook her head, far less interested in him targeting the forces of darkness and fixated more on his initial goal.

"Let me get this straight." She said, compiling everything he'd said until then so even Citrinas could grasp what everyone else in the room realized 5 minutes ago. "Someone told you to hunt down the hero of bonds. Then her party just so happened, out of pure COINCIDENCE, showed up on the mountain you were on shortly after you woke up. And, as things turn out, you're also connected to Citrinas' dead sister since whoever hybridized you probably did the same to Tristiana. All this happened from PURE COINCIDENCE. Am I right?" Daria asked as Verdi nodded, Citrinas' face going pale as she finally realized the implications.

Someone was manipulating the forces of light and darkness.

And they were after Tomoko's party.

Author's note: That feel when the poorly written plot contrivance of Verdi and Citrinas meeting to indulge in tentacle sex in act 1 turns out to actually be a vast conspiracy.